King edward iii, p.25
King Edward III, page 25
18 i.e. when Philip’s sons were all dead
lineage trisyllabic, despite Q’s spelling ‘lynage’
*of Beau See 6n.
19 obscured concealed (implying denial)
privilege right of inheritance
21 John … Valois The King of France was then Philip VI (John’s father); the play merges the two into one ‘King John’. See LR, 21n.
22–5 French Salic (Salian or Frankish) law excluded descendants through the female line from succession to the throne. It was cited to counter claims to the French crown not only of Edward III but of his successors: ‘they would hold up this Salic law / To bar your highness claiming from the female’ (H5 1.2.91–2). See LN. For French inconsistencies regarding inheritance through the female line, see end of 56–86 LN and 133–4 LN.
24 Ought not admit For omission of ‘to’, see Abbott, 349.
26 special single, only; specific
ground reason; cf. 2.224.
contempt disobedience, disrespect; rejection of King Edward’s rights to French sovereignty
* * *
17 note] (not), Q2 18 lineage] (lynage) Beau] Parfitt; Bew Q; le beau / Capell; le Bew WP
27 Wherewith refers to special ground not contempt
28 SP *not in Q; Artois’s SP at 30 repeats that at 11, suggesting the compositor’s omission of a SP between.
28 forged forgèd: fabricated
29 dusty … sand perhaps sandcastles; may refer to the precarious house built on sand described in Matthew, 7.26–7, playing on ground (26, 28) as foundation of an argument and the literal foundation of a building (maybe prompted by house, 21)
30–41 Artois’s grudge against the French King lent urgency to his encouragement of Edward’s claim to the French crown, see LR, 15n. See Froissart, 87, ‘Artoys … never ceassed daye nor nyght, in shewyng the kyng what ryght he had to the crowne of Fraunce’. Cf. 4.107–10n., 5.35–7n.
31 discover reveal
32 to record of (rècord): as witness to (OED record n.1 2b)
34 right i.e. English right to the French crown
35 thus … report ‘to give so full an account of the matter’
36 lineal by direct descent
*watchman guardian; Q’s ‘watch men’ may result from a/e misreading (cf. Ham Q2/F variant at 1.3.45). Q’s plural could be justified if You referred also to Prince Edward. However, only the King and Artois speak here, and Artois’s You, in contrast with John of Valois (37), supports Capell’s emendation.
37 indirectly circuitously, as opposed to ‘lineally’; dishonestly. Cf. H5 2.4.91–5, ‘And when you find him evenly derived / From his most famed of famous ancestors, / Edward the Third, he bids you then resign / Your crown and kingdom indirectly held / From him’.
38 should subjects elliptical: ‘should subjects do’
39 *And Q’s ‘Ah’ is probably a compositor’s slip. And supplies a second question.
* * *
28 SP] Cam (Armstrong2); not in Q; K / MS in Folger 30 SP] om. Q2 36 watchman] Capell; watch men Q 38 king;] King? Q2 39 And] Delius (Capell); Ah Q
40 rebate diminish
41 metrically irregular, stressing true
place install as sovereign; cf. Tim 4.3.36–7, ‘place thieves / And give them title’.
42 like to just like
fruitful nourishing; copious. Cf. 6.56, 10.43.
46 Which refers back either to Hot courage or, perhaps likelier, my breast
heretofore formerly; cf. 4.20. Not found in Shakespeare.
46–7 racked … fame Cf. 2H6 4.7.68–9.
46 racked in Q’s ‘rakt’ could signify: tormented (OED rack v.1 2b); dampened down (rake v.2 5a: ‘spec. to cover (a fire) with ashes’ – cf. fiery, 44, and Hot, 45); rendered useless (wrack v.2 3a, b); in = by or with. In context, the general sense is that Edward’s courage has been ‘confined or dampened down’ by not having the relevant information to stake his claim to the French throne.
48 approve prove; cf. 6.118.
descent progeny
49 yoke … steel subjugate or oppress by war (steel is both the substance of the metaphoric yoke and metonymy for war)
51–4 Audley acknowledges Lorraine on his entrance, announces his presence and brings him forward to the King when ordered (Admit him, 54 = ‘allow him to approach’; see t.nn.). For comparable action and dialogue, cf. Jack Straw, TLN 354–60, True Trag. of R3, TLN 1711–16.
51 Lord Audley first named by Froissart, 277, in 1346, before the Battle of Crécy, as one of the lords who would accompany Edward and the Prince into Gascony to raise the siege of Aiguillon. See LR, 9n.
know find out
51.1 messenger ambassador (as in Froissart, 77)
* * *
41 And place] Place Capell 42 fruitful] (fruictfull) showers] (shewers) 46 racked] (rakt), Moore Smith (rack’d); rak’d Capell; raked Hop 51 whence.] Q2; whence, Q; whence. Exit Audley, and returns. / Capell 51.1](Enter a messenger Lorragne,), Armstrong; Enter, as a Messenger, LORRAINE / Melchiori1
52 Duke of Lorraine See 56–86 LN, LR, 24n., and pp. 14–15.
52, 55Lorraine Lòrraine; stress on either syllable is possible at 72 and 108.
52 seas English Channel. Cf. 18.210.
55, 57thou … thee The informal pronoun, as opposed to formal ‘you’, was used to show affection between equals or to friends, to address inferiors in rank or to insult those of similar or superior rank (see Abbott, 231–3). Edward here uses thou to an inferior in rank; Lorraine’s response in similarly addressing Edward, on behalf of King John, implies a challenge to Edward’s assumption (cf. the polite and formal exchange between Lorraine and King David at 2.21–39). The use of the familiar pronoun throughout the following exchanges becomes increasingly disparaging. For general comments on the shifts between ‘thou’/‘thee’, ‘you’/‘your’, see Blake, 3.3.2.1.1, and Hope, 1.3.2b.
56–86 Edward’s refusal to pay homage (60) to the new French King implicitly denies John’s right to the French throne. See LN.
56, 123renowned renownèd
58 liberal gift In 1152, when Henry II married Eleanor, heiress of the 10th Duke of Aquitaine, Guyenne (59), initially in the duchy of Aquitaine, passed to the kings of England, who were expected to pay homage to the kings of France for this gift.
59 Guyenne in south-west France, north of Gascony
entailed to bequeathed to, settled on (in perpetuity)
63 according … is in the customary form
64 liegeman vassal sworn to the King’s service
* * *
54 news.] news. – Exeunt Lords. King takes his State. Re-enter Lords; with LORRAIN, attended. / Capell 56 King] (K.) 59 Guyenne] (Guyen) 64 our] the Q2
65 title legal entitlement (OED n. 7a)
67–86 Cf. 10.67–79.
67 occasion … face Cf. the proverbial ‘fortune smiles’ (see Dent2, F598.1), i.e. ‘what a coincidence’. Edward’s quip makes a rhyming couplet out of Lorraine’s final line (place/face), the first of a series of rhymed rejoinders (anticipating Prince Edward’s words at 89–90; see 96, 97n.). Cf. 103–4n., 105–7n., 168–9n.
68–9 No … straight Sams compares 124–6, 7.6–7.
76 unpolished ‘not skilfully performed’ (OED a. 2, citing this line). Possible coinages in E3 with the prefix un- are: unswear (2.492), unreputed (2.602), unrestrained (5.52), unfought (6.139), unrelenting (6.181).
shifts fraudulent devices
77 visor mask
78 *gloss deceptive appearance, fair semblance; an a/o secretary-hand confusion
79 fealty fidelity of a vassal to his feudal lord
80 usurps Cf. 6.35.
82–3 Cf. Fabyan, sig. 2q1r, ‘For the common fame ranne thanne [then] in Fraunce, yt king Edward entended nat onely to clayme Gascoyne & Guyan, but also all Fraunce as hys propre & rightfull enherytaunce in the ryghte of hys mother.’
83 all the whole When ‘modifying a plural noun, following a determiner’, whole usually expresses ‘the whole of or all’ (OED a. 8a (c), citing this line); all is emphatic. Cf. 9.11 and see p. 61.
dominions territories. Cf. 3.11, 9.11.
* * *
71 childish] foolish Q2 77 visor] Collier; visard Q 78 gloss] Q2; glasse Q
84 grudging Cf. 7.5 (and n.).
85–6 proverbial, from Aesop’s fable of the jackdaw borrowing the peacock’s feathers (see Dent, P441.1)
88, 89defiance … Defiance declaration of hostilities (OED 1a)
89–90 We … throat proverbial (see Dent2, T268.11). See 67n.
89 rebound See OED v. 4e, ‘re-echo, return (a sound)’; 3c, ‘cast or throw back; to return’ (citing this line).
90 Even to the to the very (Even = e’en)
94–5 implies that the throne of France (eagle’s nest, eagle = the king of birds) has been usurped by a sluggard. A drone was the lowest in the social order of the beehive (a traditional microcosm for the human body politic), contributing nothing and stealing the honey produced by other bees (see Virgil, Georgics, 4). Cf. H5 1.2.202–4. Drones are associated with eagles in Lyly, Endymion, 5.1.143–6, ‘There might I behold drones … creeping under the wings of a princely eagle, who, being carried into her nest, sought there to suck that vein that would have killed the eagle.’
95 Crept … stealth This tautologous phrase had some currency. Cf., e.g., Sharrock, sig. C2v, ‘The army … / Creepes in by stealth, and mortall men with deadly venome slayes’.
96, 97storm … harm The Prince caps his tirade with a rhyming couplet (see 67n.; Cercignani, 114).
97 warned warnèd
98 him King John
lion’s case lion’s skin (OED case n.2 7b); cf. the proverbial ass in a lion’s skin (Dent, A351). In KJ 2.1 and 3.1 the Duke of Austria wears Richard I’s lion-skin cloak.
* * *
87 spite] (spight) 98 off] (of)
100 He the lion, i.e. Edward
101 his grace King John
102 constrained forced
103–4 i.e. abdication is less shameful than deposition; repeating the point made in 101–2, the contemptuous rhyme (scorn/borne) provokes Lorraine’s response (see 67n., 168–9n.). Cf. H5 1.2.288–9 for the rhyme unborn/scorn.
104 reproach scorn, contempt
105–7 Lorraine’s place echoes Artois’s grace at 101, his angry and jingling couplet (106–7) countering Artois’s dignified monosyllabic rhyme (103–4). See 67n., 168–9n.
105 *Degenerate Q’s ‘Regenerate’ may well be a compositor’s error for ‘degenerate’. OED (regenerate a. 4) cites this passage as its first instance of the word in the sense ‘degenerate, renegade’, but see LN.
Viper proverbially treacherous (Dent, V68). The viper was believed to be born out of the belly of its mother, who was killed in the process (Topsell, Serpents, 293).
108 SD *Lacking space in 108, Q sets this direction, ranged right, on a separate line between 107 and 108. Thus ‘He’ seems to refer back to Lorraine, but the dialogue shows that it is Edward who draws. See LN.
109–13 i.e. I won’t rest until I’m King of France. The nightingale proverbially kept itself awake and singing all night by leaning its breast on a thorn (Dent, N183). Fervent desire and thorny-pricking hint at Edward’s coming romantic distraction from his military aims in Sc. 2, reinforced by his later reference to the nightingale and the story of Philomela (see 2.272, 275, 276n., 3.165–85). Cf. Luc 1127–9.
109 sits … heart affects me deeply (OED sit v. 14a)
110 thorny-pricking pricking like thorns (OED thorny a. S2a)
* * *
105 Degenerate] Delius (Tyrrell); Regenerate Q; Degenerate MS in Bod 106 was] wast Q2 infancy,] infancy, drawing his Sword. / Capell 107 Bear’st] (Bearest) 108 SD] Capell; after 107 Q
111 scarred wounded
113 colours banners displaying the English coat of arms; see 4.73–6 LN.
115 brave boast
116 poisoned view i.e. Lorraine’s sight of Artois, who is poisoned as traitor, harking back to Viper (105); Artois’s look or glance, evoking the basilisk (mythic reptile hatched from a cock’s egg), whose look could kill. Cf. 2H6 3.2.51–3.
117 elliptical (should = ‘who should’); Artois is false where he should be most true, i.e. in his allegiance to the French King. Artois was Philip VI’s brother-in-law (see LR, 15n.).
118 *lords Capell’s emendation is persuasive. This speech lacks the invocatory tone that would support a reading of Q’s ‘Lord’ as ‘God’; ‘lord’ is always capitalized in Q, except at 18.97, where the tight measure requires a lower-case l. The deity is explicitly invoked only at 12.81 and 14.8.
our … sail ‘our swift ship has set sail’, i.e. our offensive has been launched. The first encounter with the French will be at sea (Sc. 4).
119 gage is thrown challenge is made (metaphorical: gage = glove)
119–20 war … end proverbial (Dent2, W39.11); the war would last over 100 years.
121 *Q’s SP ‘Moun.’ is misplaced, and is repeated (correctly) at 123.
Sir William Montague See LR, 8n., 129–31 LN.
122–8 Elements from Froissart’s description of two encounters between the Scots and English in 1332 and 1341 are merged. In 1332, the Scots broke a truce, but the temporary truce of 1341 had expired before they renewed hostilities. See LN.
122 league peace agreement. Froissart uses ‘truce’ rather than league (see 122–8 LN); in the lead-up to the siege of Berwick (128), Sharrock, sig. A2r, describes Edward’s ‘Princely ire, for that the Scottes, had brake their league, and peace’. See 126n.
the Scot King David, as monarch. Cf. 155.
* * *
111 scarred] Collier (scarr’d); scard Q 117 SD] Capell subst. 118 lords] Capell; Lord Q 121 But] Q2; Moun. But Q; King MS in TCC
123 dissevered broken: a tautologous word in a tautologous phrase. Cf. 4.165, 12.5.
124–6 no … straight See 68–9n.
125 withdrawing of Cf. forgetting of (126), planting of (134), recalling of (15.7). See Abbott, 178.
126 his former oath referring to league (122; see n.)
127 made invasion on attacked. Citing Spenser (‘Vpon his fleshly corpse to make inuasion’ (Prosopopoia (1591), l. 1090)), OED (invasion n. 3) indicates that on need not be emended to ‘of’.
bordering i.e. near the border between England and Scotland
128 won by the Scots and lost by the English. The Scots assaulted Berwick in 1332 (see 122–8 LN) but not in 1341. Newcastle was invaded only in 1341 and was not spoiled (plundered; destroyed) and lost (Froissart, 188–9). The loss of both towns confirms the gravity of the Scottish threat.
Newcastle stressed on second syllable (as still locally)
129–31 Froissart and, with some notable variations, Painter are the principal sources for the episode concerning the besieged Countess. The play compresses the details of their narratives to present the siege of the castle as an unlooked-for and unreasonable attack by the Scots. See LN and 2.48–56 LN.
129 begirt with siege i.e. besieged. Cf. 2.210, 8.106; also 2.189n.
130 Roxborough trisyllabic, stressed on second syllable. Froissart does not name the castle (see 129–31 LN), but Salisbury is earlier linked with ‘Rosebourge’ castle, after King Edward’s victory at Berwick in 1333 (Froissart, 87–8, 191). Painter spells it ‘Roxboroughe’ (sig. 3P4v).
131 Countess Salisbury See LR, 6n., 129–31n. and LN.
132–5 Omission of these lines would not disrupt the dialogue’s continuity, and 0.2 lacks the name ‘Warwick’ (see n.), so that he may be a late addition to this scene (see Cam, 179, 184). See pp. 62–3.
132 Only Painter (sig. 3Q4v) names Warwick as the Countess’s father.
* * *
1252 your] our Q2 128 Berwick] (Barwicke) 130 Roxborough] (Rocksborough) 132 not,] Collier; not? Q; not; Capell
133–4 According to Froissart, Salisbury was in prison in France during the siege of his castle in 1341 (see 129–31 LN, LR, 7n.). He served later in the Breton campaign, whose events are compressed in Scs 9 and 18 to further the play’s propagandist aims (see Froissart, 196). See LN.
133 Brittain Brittany (‘Brittayne’ in Q). The Duchy of Brittany, or Bretagne, in France was generally known as Britain, or Little Britain. Here, at 9.4 (Q’s ‘Btittaines’) and at 18.97 (Q’s ‘Brittaine’) the word is disyllabic. Brittain[’s] in these lines is recommended by Q’s form, also by the need to differentiate it from ‘Britain’ and to include Brittish, 12.75 (impossible with alternatives ‘Bretagne’ or ‘Britaine’). At 3.92, where Q’s ‘Brittayne’ is trisyllabic, it is modernized as ‘Brittany’. Riv has Fr. ‘Bretagne’ throughout, despite Q’s leaning toward anglicization. Cf. 152n. For fuller discussion of the word, see Forker, 271.
134 the planting of installing; see 125n.
Lord Montfort See LR, 16n., 133–4n. and LN.
136 David See LR, 18n.
grieve harass
137 silly helpless
138 shrink … horns proverbial, alluding to the snail’s retraction of its horns when disturbed (Dent, H620) and suggesting forcible repression of ardour or pride. That snails’ horns were also seen as ‘tender’ (cf. VA 1033–4) may imply Edward’s contempt for the Scottish threat, prophetic in the light of the next scene (see 2.56–9).
139 charge commission, responsibility
140 levy recruit; synonymous with muster (see 141n.). Cf. 3.30.
141, 157Ned Prince Edward (affectionate diminutive); see LR, 3n. Froissart, 276–7, mentions him as accompanying his father into Normandy in 1345; he was fifteen. For other uses of Ned, cf. 3.105; 6.34, 172, 220; 8.88, 104; 18.160; also 4.58 and n.
141 take muster of assemble and list (men in a military force; OED muster v.1 2b)
men-at-arms soldiers; perhaps specifically ‘heavily armed soldier[s] on horseback’ (OED), by contrast with the footmen Audley is instructed to recruit, but see 3.30. Cf. 11.77, men-in-arms.
142 Select a separate force in every county; several = separate.
